Wednesday, July 21, 2010

This morning Coles announced that their own-brand pork will be 'sow stall free' by the end of 2014. This is the most significant victory yet in the campaign for pigs and will force the rest of the industry to catch up!

I wrote a story previously about the disgusting state of the Australian Pork Industry, also showing videos of the gruesome truth. Pigs are among the most intelligent species on the planet, and yet have been subjected to one of the cruellest practices ever inflicted on animals in Australia. 'Sow stalls' are typically used in factory farming operations across the country to confine and isolate mother pigs during pregnancy. The national Code of Practice permits these animals to be confined in tiny crates, unable even to turn around for months on end, denying them exercise and any quality of life. As a result, pigs suffer painful physical ailments and even depression.

Since then, Tasmania's Industries Leader, Bryan Green, announced he will be banning cruel sow stalls, having them all wiped out in the state by 2017. This was a great step for pigs...no longer will they have to live a life of terrible suffering just to be slaughtered at the end of it.

According to Coles' press release "Our customers are becoming increasingly interested in welfare issues surrounding pig farming, with the use of sow stalls their greatest concern".

This is excellent news for consumers, as it makes buying cruelty free more accessible and a lot more affordable. Having cruelty free options readily available in supermarkets makes it a lot easier for the public to make the compassionate switch. It also puts the pressure on other leading supermarkets to make the same change.

It also makes me feel great to know that people out there are putting the pressure on big companies and voicing their outrage at the cruelty behind a lot of animal products. Its excellent that people are becoming more passionate and caring and want the cruelty free options to be the ONLY option.

I am delighted to share this news on my blog...its only a small step but it's a very positive one. You can help by taking two seconds to click a button and send emails off to Woolworths, IGA, Aldi etc and urge them to make the same change! Help here : http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/sow-stall-free/

Friday, July 9, 2010

"An investigation into one of Australia's largest chicken meat producers that supplies major retail outlets has revealed routine and shocking animal abuse. Every year in Australia 488 million chickens endure brutally short and undeniably cruel lives inside factory farms. Animals Australia's investigation video shows baby birds suffering from heart disease, lameness, thirst, starvation and trampling inside a shed packed with over 40,000 birds.

Threatened by rising concern for the welfare of animals, Australia’s major chicken producers are attempting to mislead consumers with confusing terms such as ‘cage free’ and ‘free to roam’ — despite the fact that cages are never used in broiler facilities. The reality is that chicken meat from all major brands — including Steggles and Inghams — is factory farmed." - Animals Australia.

Watch the video of the investigation here to see just how shocking it is.

Chickens are intelligent animals that do not need to be treated this way. The crave stimulation and are slowly, slowly being tortured and dying painfully. Please...if you buy chicken ONLY by organic FREE RANGE! Cage free and free to roam are NOT free range...they are a play on words. Please take extra care when chosing animal products. Please, do not buy Steggles or Inghams. Open your heart and make small changes to make a difference in thousands of animals lives.

Warning. Disturbing images in this video. I cannot watch it anymore without losing it...

Saturday, May 15, 2010

/Mary Hutton is an inspiration to me. You may have heard of savethebears.org.au - you may not. Well to tell you a bit about how it came about I will tell you a bit about Mary.

She became passionate about saving bears after watching an ACA programme (rare for a current affairs programme to show something like this) about Asiatic Black bears held in coffin sized cages unable to move or turn with dirty catheters inserted directly into their gall bladder. These bears are kept this way as traditional Asian medicine uses bear bile so from the 80's, bears were kept in horrible conditions and milked for their bile.

First Mary set up a petition outside a shopping centre asking people to help free the bears. She received thousands of signatures and supports and in 1995 began free the bears as a non for profit charity.

She then joined forces with John Stephens who told her about the Sun bear, which are kept in restaurants and butchered for bear paw soup. John and Mary rescued a number of bears from Cambodia and brought these bears back to Australia to start a breeding programme. With more bears needing help, then came along the Cambodian Bear Sanctuary, which is the world’s largest sanctuary for Sun bears and has educated hundreds of thousands of Cambodians about the threats facing their wild bear populations!

The next challenge was India and the rescuing the poor dancing bears. Very tough. The fund joined with the wildlife SOS and the first 25 bears entered the Agra Bear Sanctuary in 2002. in 2009 - “Raju” the last of India’s dancing bears is handed over, bringing the dancing bear trade to an end!! That's over 500 dancing bears rescued in India, an amazing achievement.

Mary is now at 71 years of age and is still fighting to bring bear bile farming to an end and strives to educate and strengthen law enforcement to help bears in need all over the world. Mary has helped the WSPA with their efforts in saving bears and also involved in bear sanctuaries in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.. Mary message: "Free the Bears fund is to protect, preserve and enrich the lives of bears throughout the world."

Mary inspires me because she followed her passion of wanting to help these amazing animals that cant help themselves. She united other people with the same passion and shows there is hope and you can help. Sometimes with all the brutality I see animals going through, I lose hope. This shows me that I must not give up, that my passion will help and I will be dedicating my life to helping animals that cannot help themselves. My aim is to go over to volunteer in Asia one day, hopefully for a few weeks.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Just sharing some pics that I took out the front the other day. Went down after work and watched some surfers and stayed until dark. Only have my iphone but got some cool shots. Nothing could capture the moon though, it was amazing...still working on my next story...enjoy!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

An interesting article I read through a GREENPEACE newsletter was about canned tuna. Most people know to only buy "dolphin friendly" - and it is very rare to find tuna now a can that does not have this label... in fact...my cat food even has this label!

Many of you may not know, as I did not know myself, that canned tuna is still hurting other precious marine life.

Did you know that canned tuna is Australia’s biggest selling seafood item. Yet none of our canned tuna brands use tuna that’s caught sustainably. Increasing demand for tuna has decimated global tuna stocks. And to make things worse, destructive tuna fishing methods kill other marine life such as turtles and sharks.

Supermarkets rack up over $300 million a year from canned tuna. By selling us tuna that’s not caught sustainably, supermarkets play a key role in the tuna crisis. It’s time they cease trading with companies that use overfished tuna species and destructive fishing methods.

BUT before you freak out and think "geez well what CAN I eat then??" Greenpeace have created an easy to read guide that shows you the brands that use the best/least harmful methods of fishing so you can make an informed decision when purchasing tuna